Tess of the D'Urbervilles Allusions & Cultural References

When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.

William Shakespeare. Alec whistles "Take, O take, those lips away" from Measure for Measure. (9.29)
Walt Whitman. "Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, / How curious you are to me! – " (25.6)
Byron and Shelley. "Though not cold-natured, he was rather bright than hot – less Byronic than Shelleyan; could love desperately, but his love more especially inclined to the imaginative and ethereal" (31.8)
F.J. Child (ed.) The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 5 vols. (1882-98), vol. 1, no. 29. "Guénever". The ballad tells the story of "The Boy and the Mantle," which is about a magic mantle that only the pure could wear. Guinevere, King Arthur's queen, was cheating with Lancelot, and the mantle changed color and betrayed her. (32.54)
Algernon Swinburne. Atalanta upon Calydon. ll.1852-5 (35.46)
William Shakespeare. King Lear III.ii.60: "More sinned against than sinning." (35.52)
Robert Browning. "By the Fireside" (1855), l. 192. (35.78)
John Milton, Paradise Lost. Alec quotes Milton, suggesting that she's like Eve, and he's like Satan, come to tempt her in the guise of a "lesser animal," since he's dressed as a commoner. (50.20)

"Chasten yourself with the thought of "how are the mighty fallen." (1.32)
"Perhaps, like that other god of whom the ironical Tishbite spoke, he was talking, or he was pursuing, or he was in a journey, or peradventure he was sleeping and was not to be awaked." (11.61)
"Thy damnation slumbereth not." (12.51)
"Three Leahs to get one Rachel." (23.32)

Philosophical/Political

Historical References